It’s been my privilege to be one of a group of CEO’s of Christian youth work organisations that meet every now and then for a 24 hour retreat. Organised by Andy Burns of EasttoWest and Chris Curtis of Youthscape the format is a restful combination of guided discussions around issues that we’ve each chosen, prayer, good food (courtesy of the culinary genius of Chris), coffee and a trip to the local pub. Each retreat includes a guest CEO from a major Christian charity and this time we were joined by Fran Beckett, formerly CEO of Church Urban Fund and Shaftesbury Society.

Inspired by our gatherings Andy is inviting the CEO or main leader of Christian youth work charities or organisations to three 24 hour retreats over the course of 2012. Each retreat will give time to discussing the issues raised by the participants in the company of a guest CEO and will include time for peer to peer learning and one to one coaching.

As we’ve demonstrated to ourselves, there is a real need for, and a huge benefit to be gained from, these sorts of gatherings. As far as we can see there’s nothing else like them for people in leadership of Christian youth organisations with all the questions and pressures that come with the role.